Tékumel Board Games: Corsairs

(This is adapted from the game Royal Jelly by Hempuli.)

Corsairs is a game popular along the southern coast, but especially in Mu'ugalarvya where it has a nautical theme, but in Tsoliyanu it is called Skirmishers and has a military theme. In Livyanu it is played on a Qal board; in most other places it is played on a board with small posts mounted into the centers of what would be hexagonal spaces in a hexagonal lattice. The "corner" spaces are usually specially marked or colored. The pieces are often large and ornately carved with depressions on the bottom to stay (loosely) on the posts.

 

It has an asymmetrical setup: The convoy payer starts with six escorts arranged around a central freighter. The attacking player starts with their six corsairs off the board. The corsair player starts.

On the corsair player's turn they can move two pieces once or one piece twice. A move can be: move a corsair one empty adjacent space, move a corsair from off the board onto an empty corner space, or move a corsair from a corner space off the board. A single piece cannot do both the latter two moves in one turn (ie no popping off-and-on, or vice versa.)

When a corsair moves it can "pull" an adjacent opponent's piece into the space it just vacated. When this is done with a move off the board, the opponent piece is captured; if the freighter is captured this way, the corsair player wins.

On the convoy player's turn they move an escort any number of empty hexes in a straight line. This can be a single piece, or a "formation move": any number of escort ships in a straight uninterrupted line moves the same direction as a unit, the same number of spaces, and all spaces must be empty or else the whole line must stop.

The freighter cannot be moved by the convoy player at all.

At the end of the convoy player's turn, any corsairs that are adjacent to two or more convoy pieces (escorts or freighter) is "entangled" and cannot be moved on the corsair player's next turn. Any corsair piece adjacent to three escorts (but not the freighter) is captured and removed from the game.

The convoy player wins by capturing 5 corsairs, or if the game lasts one hundred turns. Re: the latter case, turns are not really counted, but it is a recognition that the convoy player wins stalemates.